


You can't pretend forever

by S_Horne



Series: ShHiatusBang Flash Bang Bingo Team Blue [18]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 04:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14488335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_Horne/pseuds/S_Horne
Summary: “I need a date,” Alec blurted out as soon as Magnus opened the door.“Good afternoon to you too, Alexander,” Magnus said with a smirk on his face after the initial shock had worn off, “I’m fine thank you. Yourself?"/Bingo Square:Fake Relationship





	1. Chapter 1

“I need a date,” Alec blurted out as soon as Magnus opened the door.

“Good afternoon to you too, Alexander,” Magnus said with a smirk on his face after the initial shock had worn off, “I’m fine thank you. Yourself?

Alec deflated and offered Magnus a sheepish smile, “Sorry,” he said as Magnus stepped aside to let him into his apartment, “Hi.”

Magnus followed Alec into his living room and watched in amusement as his friend dropped heavily face-first onto the couch. “Something wrong, my dear?”

Alec groaned and rolled over to bury his head into the couch cushions where he mumbled something entirely inaudible.

“I’m sorry,” Magnus began as he lowered himself onto the armchair across the room from the other man, “I didn’t quite catch that.”

Alec turned his head just enough to glare at Magnus’s smirk and repeated himself: “I said that Izzy is throwing a party and I’m going to die.”

“Uh huh,” Magnus nodded along sympathetically, “But tell me why that is again?”

“Izzy and a party,” Alec emphasized, “She’s already asked me three times if I wanted a date and another twice if I know what colour my partner and I will be wearing.”

“Green.”

“What?” Alec lifted his head from the cushions and stared over at Magnus with a confused question on his face.

“Oh, sorry,” Magnus laughed delicately and waved a hand in front of his face, “I sympathize; your sister can be quite a whirlwind, but you should definitely wear green.”

“Great,” Alec said dryly as he dropped back down onto the couch, “that’s brilliant, thanks. Apart from the small point that I still don’t actually have a partner, that is. Well–,” Alec paused and broke into another sheepish grin as he dropped his gaze from the other man’s to stare down at the couch.

Magnus lifted an eyebrow expectantly. “Yes?”

“Well, that’s kind of why I’m here actually,” Alec began slowly.

“You’re finally going to allow me to set you up?” Magnus squealed in glee as he leant forward in interest, but Alec pushed himself up again, this time in abject horror.

“No,” he rushed to say, “No. Absolutely not.”

Magnus deflated and dropped back into his chair, “Then what did – no.”

Alec’s shoulders dropped as Magnus cut himself off and Alec’s idea was stopped before it could start. He pushed out his bottom lip and looked up at Magnus pleadingly. “Please?”

“No way,” Magnus maintained and lifted a finger to point it sternly at his friend, “Absolutely not, my dear. You know I love you and there are many, many things I would do for you, but this is not one of those things.”

“Why not?” Alec wheedled, “I’d be a perfect gentleman all night long; you don’t have to worry about that.”

“Of course you would, Alexander,” Magnus agreed with a smile, “But we’re not talking about fooling strangers; this is your _family_. The same family that have been around for the 12 years that you and I have been best friends. Alec, there is simply no way that they would believe we were together!”

“Of course they would!” Alec argued as he sat up on the couch and stared imploringly over at his best friend, “We know everything about each other already and we can just play up the romantic side. It would hardly even be a lie. Just one night of holding hands and maybe a kiss on the cheek if Izzy looks suspicious! We wouldn’t have to do it for long, anyway; just the one party, I promise.”

“Have you thought about, oh, I don’t know, going alone?” Magnus asked as he got up from his chair to pour himself a drink. He leant back against the wall and levelled Alec with an appraising look as the other man deflated and fell back against the couch cushions.

“With Izzy?” Alec scoffed and rubbed a hand down his face, “No way. I know she means well, but she’s unbearable. She feels so guilty – I want her to see that it’s okay. Ever since Jace got engaged she’s been a little obsessed, but now that she’s married _and_ pregnant she feels awful. She’s always going on about how I should have been first to do all of this as the oldest and how she’s taken it away from me. This is her trying to make herself feel better by forcing me onto every guy she’s ever met. I just… I don’t want to argue with her, but if I have to go on one more blind date I swear I’m going to scream.”

Magnus smiled softly and walked slowly over to Alec, dropping down onto the couch next to him and reaching out to take his hand. “Oh Alexander, ever the sacrificial lamb to the slaughterhouse. Fine,” he said with a put upon sigh, “I will be your fake boyfriend. Prepare to be romanced in ways you’ve never known before.”

Alec laughed, but squeezed his best friend’s hand. “Thank you,” he said with relief in his voice, “You know I wouldn’t ask if I thought I had another choice.”

Magnus returned the laugh before it fell from his face and he pointed a stern finger at Alec, “But,” he said menacingly, “I get to be the good guy in the breakup, okay? I’m not losing my personal chef in Maryse or my chance to be a godfather in Izzy.”

 “Fine. Like they’d believe you to be the bad guy anyway,” Alec said with a roll of his eyes, “They all adore you.”

“In which case, it’s a deal. For one date and one date only, Magnus and Alexander. Watch out world.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This feels super, super rushed and I apologise for that, but I sort of lost the story somewhere in here.

It had become a thing.

It was only meant to be the once; a one-off date for one of Izzy’s parties so that she would stop feeling guilty that Alec was both the oldest Lightwood child and the only single one left, who was old enough to date, anyway. It was a favour for a friend; Magnus helping Alec out one time.

_“Hey,” Alec called as he let himself into Magnus’s apartment, throwing his keys down onto the side table and waving tiredly._

_“Hi,” Magnus replied. He dropped his head onto the back of the couch and watched as his friend walked into his living room and threw himself down onto the armchair opposite him. “How you doing?”_

_“I’m good, thanks,” Alec said as he swung his legs up onto the coffee table in front of him, toeing off his shoes as he did so. “Oh, Mom wanted me to remind you that it’s the party next week. Are you still coming?”_

_“Ah, the famous Lightwood Christmas party,” Magnus said around a wide grin, “Of course I’m going.” No one could resist the call of the Lightwood Christmas party; a huge annual event that was the talk of the neighbourhood for months after it had taken place. It had started a few years ago as a business networking event but had quickly descended into nothing more than an excuse for a massive party once a year. “There’s a beautiful woman at the office that I–” Magnus broke off when he saw the look on Alec’s face and sighed. “What?”_

_“Nothing,” Alec hastened to say, “no, it’s nothing. Really. Nothing.”_

_“Well, that’s obviously a lie. What is it?” Alec avoided Magnus’s eyes and pursed his lips, not saying anything. Even as he didn’t answer, Magnus knew what he meant and sighed again. “They think we’re still together, don’t they.” It wasn’t a question, but Alec’s soft and sheepish smile only confirmed what Magnus already knew. He rolled his eyes as he dropped his head forward. “Great. Guess I’ll tell Dot that the plans have changed.”_

_“I’m sorry,” Alec said, “I can tell them – I will, I swear. Don’t worry about it; I’ll ring Izzy–”_

_“No, no, don’t bother,” Magnus cut in and smiled at his friend. “It’s fine. We can play along again; what’s one more night?”_

But then Magnus had been the perfect fake boyfriend all night long and had managed to fool his family into believing that they were actually together for a second time. It had been a little too easy, actually, and Alec had seen it as a wonder. The next time that he had a work function which invited families and partners, Alec had asked again for the ‘fake boyfriend’ gig and Magnus had said yes. It was Magnus who had asked next when he had had a dinner with his boss and wanted to show his commitment and seriousness through a long-term relationship.

And then after that, it had just become normal.

Whenever Alec got hit on and wanted a quick escape from the uncomfortable, he just said he had a boyfriend. He was usually with Magnus anyway and it wasn’t hard to slip his arm around his waist or press a kiss to his perfectly-styled hair and on times when he was alone, he just whipped out his phone where he had a camera roll full of photos of the two of them. Magnus did the same and cited a big date with Alec whenever he wanted an excuse to leave a boring party or to skip a meeting.

So… no. It hadn’t been just one more night. Before too long, they had gone from being Alec and Magnus, best friends, to being Alec&Mangus, boyfriends. One was rarely seen without the other, the two men gravitating towards each other whenever they ended up in the same room.

/

Alec was leaning against the mantelpiece, a drink in hand as he laughed heartily with Jace, his head thrown back as he pushed at his brother’s shoulder. As soon as Magnus walked in the room, it was as though there were a magnet between the two men and Alec’s head shot around as his face lit up, his eyes crinkling as he beamed at his friend. Magnus had crossed the room in a matter of minutes, only stopping to grab a drink from the bar and to press a kiss against Izzy’s cheek in passing. As soon as he reached Alec, the man reached out his arm and wound it around Magnus’s waist, drawing him close to his side.

“Are we doing this again?” Magnus whispered as he let himself be pulled closer to Alec.

“Yeah,” Alec whispered back as he dropped a kiss to the crown of Magnus’s head, “Mom was making noise about how it had been too long that she’d seen us together since Christmas.”

“Well then,” Magnus said as he pulled back slightly and looked up at Alec with a wide smile before he pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, “hi, boyfriend.”

/

Alec startled when he felt a hand rest between his shoulder blades and he turned to see his mother standing behind him with a proud smile.

“There are my boys!” She said as she bent down to press kisses to the cheeks of both Alec and Magnus before she rounded the table and sat down opposite them, squeezing Izzy’s hand as she did so. They were halfway through their meal when Maryse suddenly placed down her cutlery and reached over to take Alec’s hand in hers. “I am so happy you two are together, Alec. I can’t tell you how much.”

Alec smiled and opened his mouth to agree when he saw Magnus’s face fall slightly, the other man’s hands tightened into fists as he seemed to compose himself before plastering a smile on once more. Alec sighed deeply and pulled his hand away from his mother’s. He took a deep breath and looked at his mother with a sad twist to his lips. “Wait… Mom, I need to tell you this.”

“Alec, no – don’t–”

“No, Magnus; we need to,” Alec said as he reached out and squeezed his best friend’s shoulder, “this isn’t fair anymore. Not to you. It never was.” He turned back to his mother and spoke with determination. “Magnus and I – we’re not dating…”

“What?” Alec flinched as two loud voices cried out across the table, his sister and his mom both wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just–”

“Of course you’re dating–”

“Alec Lightwood, you tell me right now–”

“Magnus; did you know?”

“Yes… Look, Maryse–”

“Well, that’s a damn cruel way to breakup if he doesn’t.”

"Izzy, I..."

“Alec,” Maryse said eerily calmly and the other voices dropped away at her tone, “you and Magnus have been a couple for six months. What do you mean to tell me that you aren’t together?”

Alec winced. “Um, yeah. Mom, about that….”

“Don’t you dare tell me that this has all been a lie, Alexander Lightwood. Anyone can see that you two are in love.”

“No, Mom. It wasn’t a lie, it was just, well, more of a–”

“Why?”

Alec turned to Izzy when she asked the soft question and sighed. “It was more of, well. It was _easy_. I didn’t have to battle or fight of insistent people or scrounge for a date. And it was _Magnus._ ” Alec turned back to his friend at that and smiled softly. “We were always together anyway, why not just pretend?”

/

“I can’t believe you.”

Alec turned around at his sister’s voice. Izzy walked into Alec's living room, pulling the door closed behind her and walked softly over to Alec. She fell delicately down onto the couch and looked at Alec carefully. The meal had ended pretty quickly after Alec's confession; an awkward silence that Izzy, bless her heart, really tried to cover. Magnus had left the restaurant almost as soon as the bill had been paid, declining Alec's offer to go back to his for a nightcap, a rejection that Alec wasn't used to hearing. Maryse had sighed at the two of them and shaken her head as she'd pressed a kiss to each of their cheeks before she had walked out with Magnus, her arm locked around his as he desperately tried to apologise to her.

“Iz, I’m sorry,” Alec said. He dropped his gaze down to his hands in his lap and sighed. “I wanted to tell you, I really did, but I just wasn’t sure how to after that first time. It was meant to be just for the one party, but then Magnus needed a date for one of his work parties and then it was Mom’s Christmas party and… Well, you know the rest.”

“But why?” Izzy asked. “Why did you lie in the first place, and why choose Magnus?”

“It was your party," he admitted on another sigh, “I didn’t have a date and I didn’t _want_ one either. I, well, Magnus was sort of _there,_ I guess. He was going and I needed a date... He’s my best friend; we already knew each other and we knew it would be easy enough to pretend. I knew it wouldn’t be hard.”

“Are you sure you’re not dating? Like, really, really sure?”

“Yes, Izzy,” Alec said and rolled his eyes. He looked up at his sister and his mouth twisted up into a soft smile. “I would know if it was real.”

“Really? Because you walked into the restaurant holding his hand.”

“That doesn’t–”

“And he’s your phone wallpaper,” Izzy continued, "has been for months."

“Because he’s holding Church and why would I not want my cat as my phone background?”

“You kissed when he left last week.”

“Yeah, but–”

“Alec,” Izzy said slowly and caught her brother’s gaze when he fell silent again. “You _kissed_ him. You didn’t stop and think about it, you didn’t look around to see if we were watching you, you didn’t just wave him goodbye like you usually did. You actually kissed him.”

“Well, that was… It was – no, it was just. What?”

Izzy smiled, a sad twist of her lips with a little too much pity to the expression for Alec's liking. “Do you really think this relationship is fake?”

_“Yes,”_ Alec insisted. “We’ve been doing it for six months. Whenever one of use needs a date we just call on the other.”

“Yeah, fine, I get that. That part isn’t weird; I know a lot of people who do that. But the weird part is that you convinced all of us for months that you were together.”

“He’s my best friend, Iz. It wasn’t exactly hard.”

“ _Exactly_.” Alec looked confused and Izzy rolled her eyes at the denseness of her older brother. “Did you never stop to think about why it wasn’t hard? Why it felt right to hold his hand and kiss his cheek? To be the one he took home instead of watching him dance with someone else?”

Alec opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut as a thought struck him.

“And why did you stop?” Izzy continued, “Why did you even come clean now?"

“Because it was hurting him… Oh.”

“Yeah,” Izzy smiled and reached out to playfully punch at Alec’s shoulder when he smiled dopily at him.

/

“Hi.”

Magnus smiled at Alec’s small wave and stepped back to let the man into his apartment. Things had been a little awkward in the week since Alec had confessed to his parents that they hadn’t actually been dating and it was hell. Alec had never felt awkward around Magnus, not once in the 10 years that they’d known each other, and it was a very strange feeling. He didn't like not seeing his best friend every day and re-drafting his text messages before he sent them off.

“So,” Alec began as he walked into the apartment. He stopped in the middle of the living room and span on his heel to face his friend as he took a steeling breath. “It has been brought to my attention that, um, well that… Maybe what we’ve been doing is sort of, you know, it’s–”

“Real?”

Alec looked up and matched the grin on Magnus’s face, relief and something else that he wasn’t sure he had the emotional strength to decipher just then bleeding into his expression and dropping his shoulders as though the weight of the world had been lifted from them. “Yeah,” he agreed, “real. Is, um, is that something that you’ve felt too?”

Magnus took a step forward and Alec automatically took the hand that stretched out for him. “Yeah,” Magnus agreed with a happy smile, “I’m pretty sure it is.”


End file.
